Helmets are typically used in sports (such as football, lacrosse, hockey, etc.) or other physical types of activities (e.g., police riot gear) for protecting a user's head during such activities. A chin strap, connected to the helmet, is also provided to assist in securing a helmet to a user's head and/or protect the user's chin and jaw from abrasive or other contacting forces associated with the physical activity in which the user is engaged. The chin strap typically includes one or more flexible straps tethered to a central cup. The distal ends of the flexible straps include fasteners that secure the chin strap to the helmet such that the cup is generally aligned with the users chin. The flexible straps can be adjustable in length to facilitate adjustment of a distance from which the chin strap extends from the helmet to provide a proper chin alignment, as well as a comforting fit for the user wearing the helmet.
The cup of such conventional chin straps includes a symmetrical cup, i.e., a cup defining equal surface areas on opposite sides of the cup's central longitudinal or lengthwise axis. This conventional cup is prone to slippage caused by contact during game play. That is, when a force is applied to the helmet (e.g., via helmet-to-helmet contact), the helmet will shift/rotate on the wearer's head. In addition, while the adjustability feature for the straps of the chin strap is desirable to facilitate a precise comfort fit for different users of a helmet (e.g., users having different facial contours and configurations), this can also result in a user adjusting the strap lengths so that the chin strap is loosely fit over the user's chin, resulting in the potential for the chin strap to slip from and/or provide less protection to the user's chin when engaging in the physical activity.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a chin strap having a more secure fit, and that is effective to retain the position (e.g., rotational position) of the helmet on the wearer's head during game play.